Genesis 2:2 And
on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested
on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

[3] And God blessed
the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from
all his work which God created and made.

Mankind would be going forth and replenishing the
earth during this seventh day, this millennium of rest.

[4]
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were
created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

Now,
you will find that in just about every commentary of the Bible extant,that
the creation which follows is presented as a parenthetical insertion,a
more detailed account of the creation of man which we read of in chapter
1 beginning in verse 26.

This
false
assumption will lead to great difficulty in explaining how it isthat
in chapter one the animals are created first, then man,while
here in chapter two man is created first and then the animals.

Which is it?

The answer is BOTH.

There are two separate creations.

We begin to "see" in the next verse.

[5]
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb
of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain
upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

Do
you recall in the last study that we noticed there was no
mention in chapter one, whatsoever, of a farmer, a man to till the ground
and plant seeds?

The
sixth day man was given dominion over the fowl of the air and the fish
of the sea.

There
were only hunters and fishers.

And
so here on the eighth day,following
God's day of rest (Sabbath),God
says that He has"no man to till the ground".

It
is significant that eight, in Biblical numerics, means "new beginnings",
because
God is about to form a new man for a very, very special purpose.

[6] But
there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the
ground.

[7] And the LORD
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

There
are several important things to notice in this verse:

First,
the Hebrew word for "formed" is yatsar, meaning
to "mould" or "form" as a potter.

It
is not the same word as "created" in Gen. 1:26, which is bara.

Secondly
(and this is crucial to our understanding), the
word "man" used here is " 'eth-ha adham", with the article
and
particle, and means "this same man Adam".

It
means a specific man, not mankind in general.

Again, if you are fortunate to have a Companion Bible,
it will document this for you.

Lastly,
we see God "breathed" into Adam's nostrils the "breath
of life".

The word translated "breathed"
is naphach, which means to "inflate",as in He inflated Adam's lungs.

So
God not only inflated Adam's lungs with "air",but
placed in him his "breath of life body", i.e.
his spiritual body.

The
apostle Paul makes it very clear in 1 Cor. 15that
we have both a flesh body and a spiritual body,and
so did Adam when God was finished forming him.

[8]
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the
man whom he had formed.

God
did not tell this "man" to go forth and replenish the earth, did
He?

Instead,
He prepared a special garden and in it placed this "same man Adam",whom
He had formed.

[9]
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant
to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of
the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Do
you see that in addition to the trees in the rest of the garden,there were two specific trees present in the midst of the garden?

Do
you know what or who they were?

Verses 10 through 14 describe the geographical location
of Edenwhich we shall discuss in more detail when we get to
chapter 6 in Genesis.

[10]
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was
parted, and became into four heads.

[11] The name
of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah,
where there is gold;

[12] And the
gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

[13] And the
name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole
land of Ethiopia.

[14] And the
name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the
east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

[15] And the
LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it.

Our Father now has a man
to till the ground, an husbandman, a gardener.

His name is Adam and he is given
charge to dress and maintain Eden.

[16]
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat:

Adam was told that he could eat of every tree
that is good for food,i.e. bears fruit and nuts, etc.

or, as the next verse states,
He is talking about spiritual food?

[17]
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

But, there is a "tree" in
the midst of the garden,which has the knowledge of good
and evil, that Adam better stay away from,or it may cost him his life.It's pretty clear He's talking
spiritual food here!

As
you may already know, Adam falls short and disobeys God,and
dies at age 930, just 70 years short of one day.

Shortly
we will discover and document who the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil really is, and in doing so, we will shatter one of Satan's biggest
and most prolific lies.

For
some, it may well be one of most interesting Bible studies they have ever
read.

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits;
to understand it, the highest of all goals.We pray that with the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, you accomplish both.

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